http://innovationwatch.com Rethinking the future Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:07:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A British soldier left blind by a grenade in Iraq has told how his life has been transformed by ground-breaking technology that enables him to "see" with his tongue. ... Read more http://www.physorg.com/news187946960.html You might expect that the American Dream would appear to be in trouble in the midst of the longest recession since the great Depression. However, the first State of the American Dream Survey from Xavier University's Institute for Politics and the American Dream indicates the problems perceived by Americans are ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ford/how-we-see-the-future_b_499624.html Criminals leave behind an identifiable mix of hand bacteria that forensic scientists could use to identify them, a new study suggests. Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that bacterial samples taken from computer mice and keyboards genetically matched the bacteria on hands of the computers' users better ... http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/15/tech-hand-bacteria-fingerprint.html Brazil says it may let local companies break U.S. patents on products including movies, music, pharmaceutical products and chemicals. The World Trade Organization says Brazil can take punitive action because the United States has failed to get rid of illegal subsidies provided to American cotton farmers. ... http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/03/15/brazil_may_break_us_patents_on_films_music_drugs/ Geneticists have found that the removal of a single gene allows mice to regenerate damaged body parts, as some salamanders do, a discovery that could one day lead to faster healing in humans. ... Read more http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/15/tech-genetics-mouse-healing.html One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in this Midwestern city once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass. ... Read more http://www.physorg.com/news187880516.html Working backward from the apt observation by physicist Ernest Rutherford—“We haven’t the money, so we have to think”—we might ask: Are there pitfalls to these buckets of cash? ... Read more http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/57162/ It may be possible to look into America’s future. How? Watch what’s going on in Greece. ... Read more http://www.gilmermirror.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Is+Greece+the+future+of+America-%20&id=6712567 Australia’s top scientists yesterday released a “State of the Climate” report at a time of growing scepticism over climate change as a result of revelations of errors in some global scientific reports. ... Read more http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=348926&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21 U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours. ... Read more http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100315/tc_nm/us_usa_broadband_2